


Admiring from afar

by jackkellys



Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti), IT - Stephen King
Genre: Bird Watching, Fluff, M/M, and not leprosy, cute cute cute, it’s literally just fluff and dialogue, might be ooc? u can be the judge, mike hanlon is in L word, never written It fic before, not lice, stanley is the cutest boy ever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-17
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:34:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22287967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackkellys/pseuds/jackkellys
Summary: Mike likes to take the long way into town so he can admire the pretty boy who likes to watch birds.
Relationships: Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier, If u squint that is haha, Mike Hanlon/Stanley Uris, Stanlon nation
Comments: 1
Kudos: 80





	Admiring from afar

**Author's Note:**

> heyo, i love mike hanlon and stanley uris best losers and dats on perry’s hat.

Mike Hanlon is positive that he is in love with the boy he always sees in the park sitting on a picnic blanket with a book and binoculars. Sometimes he's alone and sometimes he's with a boy his age and a younger boy. Sometimes in a large group. Mike's never met these kids, perks of being homeschooled. For such a small town, he's surprised he doesn't even know their names. Yet again, he and his grandpa live out from town on a farm, quite literally the middle of nowhere in the middle of nowhere, Maine.

So, maybe Mike's a little dramatic, you can't be in love with someone you've never even met, his life is far from a rom-com. But despite the fact that Mike's never met the curly haired beauty and the fact that he doesn't even know his name, he still believes maybe he is in love. He's in love with the way the boy gently turns his book pages, the way he's careful with the binoculars. The way he jokes around with his friends, eyes closed as he brings a hand to cover his mouth whenever he laughs a little too hard. He wears a dome shaped covering on his head and Mike is ashamed to say he has no idea what the name of it is. He thinks that could be a way to start a conversation, but then he backs out because that's just weird and maybe not the best approach to telling a boy you've never met you're in love with him.

Mike's grip tightens on the handlebars of his bike as he stops on the little dirt road of the path. He usually never went by the park when running errands in town, he doesn't even remember why he decided to in the first place considering it takes longer than his normal route. But ever since he saw the boy, he goes this way everyday in hopes of seeing him. And Mike realizes it's a bit stalker-ish, but he just hopes that maybe the boy will notice him if he keeps coming this way.

Mike doesn't see the boy today, which causes him to frown and get back on his bike. He begins to pedal away, not paying attention to where he was going until it was too late.

"Watch out!" He calls out to the person standing in the middle of the path but it was no use. Mike tries his brakes as fast as he can, but the bike wobbles back and forth and he toppled over.

"Oh, my gosh," He hears the boy utter and Mike struggles to get back up, "Here." His bike is lifted up and the kick stand is out, a hand appears in front of his face.

"I'm sorry!"

Mike takes the hand and allows himself to be pulled up. He dusts off his jeans and shirt, face feeling as though it's burning when he sees the person he almost hit.

"I—" Mike's voice cuts off before he can even say anything and the boys are left in a silence. It was him, pretty boy...in the flesh, standing right in front of Mike.

The boy was even prettier up close. So many more details Mike could see now than when he was watching from a distance. For instance, the small pink butterfly clips tucked into his curly hair. The small freckles across his nose and slowly disappearing as the go further onto his cheeks. Mike could only stare.

"I should've watched where I was going," Pretty boy says, "I got caught up watching this bird as we were leaving." Mike could've swooned at how precious he thought that was, and then cringed at himself for being so sappy.

"I'm sorry too," Mike finally says, "I wasn't paying much attention to the road."

"You did yell "watch out,"" The boy behind pretty boy says.

"I did," Mike nods awkwardly, he felt extremely uncomfortable as pretty boy watched him. His gaze was a little too intense for Mike's liking, as if the boy could literally read all of his thoughts...see all his deepest darkest secrets. Then the boys crouching down and Mike's heart nearly gives out.

"Uh..."

"Here," He says, rising once more and handing Mike the packages he was meant to be delivering. Mike takes them from his hands and realizes how close they're standing.

"Thanks."

"No problem, I'm Stanley Uris," He holds out his hand to shake and Mike has to remind himself of manners.

Mike takes Stanley's hand and shakes it, "I'm...uh, Mike, uh, Hanlon."

"That's Ben," Stanley says, nodding his head.

Mike quickly releases Stanley's hand when noticing they weren't shaking hands anymore, but rather just standing holding hands. And then Mike realizes Stanley is looking him up and down slowly and Mike's stomach is doing flips and he wants to just fold into himself and melt into a puddle. Mike isn't sure what to do or say so he only stands there, waiting for Stanley to look him in the eyes again.

"Well..." Stanley says and he makes eye contact with Mike, his cheeks turning a very faint pink that Mike would've missed, had he not been trying to memorize the boys features. "I should get home for dinner before my parents freak."

"Right," Mike says, clearing his throat.

"See ya!" Stanley says, turning away from him and looping his arm through Ben's.

Mike doesn't have much time to think about the possibilities of the statement, "see ya!" because Stanley is walking away and Mike wants to keep talking to him and...oh, how is he only realizing that the boy is wearing bell bottoms. Bell bottoms of all things! Mike giggled, watching the boys leave, eyes trained on Stanley's retreating figure.

He takes a deep breath before climbing on his bike to finish his deliveries, his heart rate speeding just thinking about the interaction he had with Stanley.

"Stanley," He whispers to himself as if it was the most important thing. Mike pedals away, large smile plastered on his face as he rides into town. Nothing could change the happiness he felt, not even Henry Bowers shouting names at him as he passes the old car to the butchers.

Mike had trouble focusing and he blamed it all on Stanley Uris. Well, truly is was Mike's fault for even harboring a crush on a boy he didn't even know and then somehow managing to fall in love without even talking to the boy. And he couldn't stop thinking about the awkward interaction, distracting him too much that his grandfather had yelled at him during breakfast because he somehow almost burned eggs.

He was trying to do his school work, his easiest subject: history, but he couldn't focus on that either. Mike shakes his head as if that would clear his thoughts and continued reading the textbook. His grandfather was taking his usual 4pm nap on the couch, meaning he probably wouldn't be awake for at least another hour; so Mike closes his book, writes a note telling his grandfather he ran to get groceries and left the house. They didn't really need groceries, but it was the only reason Mike could find that explained why he left to go to town.

Mike pedals straight to the park, hoping the boy might be there. He stops on the old path, glancing around the empty park until he spots the curly haired boy. Mike frowns when seeing he was with a group rather than alone. He sighs, disappointed, and goes to get back on his bike until someone calls out his name.

Eyebrows furrowed, he turns around to see Ben waving like a mad man and Stanley sending a small wave his way. Mike can feel his face grow hot. Ben motions for him to come closer and Mike pushes his bike towards them, letting it fall a little ways off the path. He approaches them slowly, letting his bike fall to the ground and he's standing in front of Ben, who'd ran to meet him halfway.

"Hey!" Ben grins, "We met yesterday—"

"I remember," Mike nods, looking over to the group behind Ben, trying not to linger on Stanley.

He sees two boys bickering, not noticing Mike was standing there, or if they did, they didn't care. One had large square glasses and was laughing loudly as the boy beside him grabbed something from his fanny pack, face bright red. There was a girl with fiery red hair cut short, freckles splattered across her cheeks and nose. A boy wearing nike shorts and a Derry High t-shirt was sitting extremely close to Stanley and Mike tried not to jump to conclusions but he couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

"That's Richie, Eddie, Beverly and Bill," Ben introduces, pointing at each one. Mike barely registers the names, a little distracted.

"Guys," Stanley speaks up this time, "That's Mike."

"The kid you knocked off the bike?" Glasses says, Mike's pretty sure that was Richie.

"I didn't—" Stanley's cheeks turn a bit pink.

"He didn't," Mike speaks up, "I wasn't paying attention and almost hit him."

"I was watching a bird," Stanley says a bit embarrassed.

Richie howls with laughter as if it's the funniest thing ever and Mike can't help but smile.

"Are you new?" The boy beside Richie, Eddie, asks.

Mike shakes his head and stutters out, "I'm homeschooled actually.”

Ben takes a seat beside the girl, Beverly, leaving Mike awkwardly standing in front of them. He rocks back and forth on his heels until Stanley spots the empty place beside him on the blanket.

"You can sit down...if you want to, that is. Unless you have something else to do?" Stanley says in a rush. He wipes his hands on his khaki shorts and Mike shakes his head dumbly.

Mike made sure to leave distance between them when he sat down, just in case his heart was beating too loud and Stanley could possibly hear it. Bill rolls away from them and towards Ben and Beverly. Stanley closes his book and Mike notices it had a few birds on the cover.

He clears his throat, "You like birds?"

Stanley nods enthusiastically.

"I don't know much about them...well, except chickens," Mike rambles, "But I hate our chickens because they always try to chase me and I don't really—" He pauses, coming to a stop in his sentence when he sees Stanley giggling, "What?"

Stanley shakes his head, "You have chickens?"

Mike nods, "Yeah...and cows, sheep, goats, horses. It's a farm, where I live. My grandpa's."

"That's cool," Stanley says, "I want to live on a farm, with all the open land. I live in a boring neighborhood." Then he laughs like it was a joke and Mike smiles widely.

"You could come see them sometimes," Mike says without thinking, "Uh..if you want to. I know you don't really know me, that'd be kinda weird—"

"That'd be cool," Stanley says, and then he's staring at Mike again. The intense gaze that he had when they first met, the one that makes Mike a little bit uncomfortable, the one where it's like Stanley can read his thoughts, "I don't think you look to be much of a creep. One of the requirements is to have a mullet." And then Stanley laughs again and Mike is a bit confused.

"Yeah..."

"Like Henry Bowers," Stanley continues, "You know?"

Then, Mike laughs, "Yeah...yeah, he's really creepy."

"He is," Stanley nods.

Mike shifts awkwardly, not sure what else to say. He listens to Richie, Eddie and Bill's conversation as Stanley flips through his bird book. Mike peers over his shoulder, looking through each of the pages alongside him.

"Birds are easier to find along the coast," Stan tells Mike, "Maine gets a load of birds like: Manx shearwater or the Great Cormorant."

"Which ones do you usually see?" Mike asks.

Stan flips back to the beginning of his book, "Well in the spring I can see the ruffed grouse..." He points to a well drawn picture of a brown bird that kind of reminded Mike of a smaller sized, cuter chicken, "Oh and the black-backed woodpecker, of course. One of my favorites is the grey jay, or camp robber. They're small birds from Canada that like to visit campgrounds and picnics to beg for food. Sometimes they'll take food from your hands."

"Don't bore the poor guy, Stan the Man!" Richie jokes.

Stanley rolls his eyes but slowly closes his book.

"I don't think it's boring," Mike quickly says. Which, okay, he didn't think it was the most fun thing ever but Stanley enjoyed it and he was sharing it with Mike. He would listen to it forever.

Stanley smiles at him and Mike could melt into the picnic blanket if it was at all possible. He glances at his watch and frowns at how late it was getting, "I should get home."

"Oh," Stanley frowns.

"I still have to go the grocery store," He responds and tries to think of what he could possibly get that they needed, "And my grandfather will probably want to eat dinner soon."

Stan glances at his own watch, "I suppose I should head home for dinner too."

He glances back at his friends as he rises, "I'll walk you back to the bike path?"

"Okay," Mike grins.

"You really think my birds are interesting?" Stanley asks softly, crossing his arms over his chest as they walk close together.

Mike bumps his shoulder into Stanley's, "Well, yes. I mean, I'm not...particularly interested in it. But you are, and I like listening to you talk about them..." And then, he was feeling a bit bold so he added, "It's cute."

Stanley giggled, "Well-er, what do you like then?"

Mike thinks for a minute, "I like history: Derry's history. I also like my cows. We have miniature cows and they're my favorite things," Mike gushes. "There's also this boy I'm kind of interested in..." He glances to Stan and notices the tips of his ears have turned a bit pink.

"Oh?" He says, voice coming out high pitched.

"Except I kind of feel like a stalker because I always see him on my bike rides into town...and I can't help but watch him for a few minutes. What do you think?"

"I think it's a little stalker-ish," Stanley says, indicating with this fingers how much.

Mike huffs, "Yeah..."

"Maybe you should talk to him?" Stanley offers.

"I did, kind of. First, I almost ran him over," Mike says and stops to pick up his bike as they got closer to the path.

Stanley laughs, "So much for first impressions."

Mike laughs nervously, turning to look at the curly haired boy, "Listen, Stanley, I-uh, really like you. And you probably think I'm just a weird stalker or something now...but I wasn't lying about you being able to come to my farm and see the chickens if you wanted to. I mean, chickens are pretty boring birds to be honest—"

"How about a date first?" Stanley asks, letting his arms drop to his sides and he rocks back and forth nervously.

Mike grins widely, heart beating fast and hands growing sweaty, “Yeah! Yeah...that’d be good.”

“Cool,” Stanley smiles, “How about Saturday?”

“Saturdays perfect,” Mike grins.

“Maybe we could see a movie or something,” Stanley suggests, “Say...7 o’clock?”

“Perfect,” Mike grins.

“Perfect.”

Mike leans forward and kisses Stanley’s cheek before he can second guess himself and chicken out. Stanley turns a bright pink when Mike pulls away and he can’t help but giggle.

“See you,” Mike says and pedals off, looking behind him to see Stanley still smiling.


End file.
